Trampled by Geese is a reminder to myself to look at the positive side of life and to endeavour to only write about things that inspire me rather than focus on what is negative in the world. Kirkegaard once wrote, “Being trampled by geese is a slow way of dying, but being eaten to death by envy and greed is even slower and more painful”.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

eighty-one

I am so close to being finished my Kauni. All that remains is for me to pick up the sts around the neck and the button bands, learn how to make button holes (I measured and placed safety pins for where they go – on the right side – before cutting the steek), and finish it off. I have decided to do as everyone else and not knit it all in one go. It’s not because I cannot, it’s because I can’t – I have the knowledge and the will, just not a circular needle long enough. Instead of working on it last night, I knit one and a bit chemo caps while watching lord of the rings (am I the only one in the world that thinks the battle for helms deap is the best battle scean in the history of film?). I’m using the EZ pattern for a toque (Canadians know what I’m talking about, I think the rest of the world calls them beanies) as I’m not up on how to knit hats. I have both wool and acrylic in my stash, so I’ll make hats with both as not everyone knows how to, or has the desire to wash by hand.

I am excited about the Fibre Fest today. I don’t know what it’s going to be like, but there will be fibre and fibre friends. What more can I ask?

We pulled our chairs into as small a circle as we could manage, nine of us knee to knee huddled around a basket of yarn and a selection of circular needles.

We each chose a yarn and a needle and cast on as many stitches as we could fit on the needle.

We were instructed to give one end of our needle to the person to our right, keep one end (the active end with the yarn) which we use to knit the stitches given to us by the person to our left. Confused yet? Remember, these are circular needles, so it makes life far easier than if we were using for example, regular needles.

You then take the sts that have been given to you and knit them. At the same time, the person who has the other end of your cast on knits those sts and the person to your left is knitting more sts for you to enjoy.

The hilarity that ensues at this point is amazing. There is virtually no way that you are not going to twist the cast on edge, but in all likelihood it will be twisted almost the same amount one was as the other to sort of balance out. Eventually, once everyone gets into the rhythm, you have a group of happy people, sitting knee to knee, all knitting the same project. In the end, we draped the finished circle of knitted fun around our most gracious hostess curlysalamander and thanked her for bringing so much joy to our evening.

Knitting is such a solitary art, even when you are knitting in a group, you still knit your own work, your own sts, in the end, it’s entirely up to you. With this game, you knit someone else’s stitches and someone else knits yours. It’s communal. It’s a great deal of fun, and if you can find a group of knitters somewhere, some time, I highly recommend trying it.